Santosh
Women’s Work: Essential Films by Female Filmmakers
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2h 8m
Directed by Sandhya Suri | 120 mins | 2024
Trained to take the place of her police constable husband who was killed on the job, young housewife Santosh (Shahana Goswami) is dropped into the harsh realities of rural Northern India and paired with a savvy, charismatic inspector, Sharma (Sunita Rajwar), to investigate the murder of a low-caste girl. Sandhya Suri's narrative debut elegantly splits the difference between a gritty procedural and complex study of women working in a high-pressure, super-corrupt, machismo-plagued workplace. Few films are bold enough to combine cool-headed formal control with palpable outrage, or so smart to engineer it this well.
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Animale
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Hotel
Directed by Jessica Hausner | 77 mins | 2004
Jessica Hausner’s eerily enigmatic second feature is suffused with the crystalline chill of its remote alpine setting. It follows Irene, newly employed as a receptionist at Waldhaus, a stately hotel in the woods: The young woman is unsettled to learn t...